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The Swedish furniture and home products company markets itself as a socially progressive business. The Ikea web site includes a “Voices of Women” page that features quotes such as “I want to decide…what is right or wrong for me! I want to choose when I want to become a mother” and “I want to provide my daughter with a better life. I want to give her options.”

Of course, those quotes are from women in India, not women in the Arab world.

The Associated Press report on Ikea’s catalogs says most editions feature a picture of a family getting ready for bed, with a young boy brushing his teeth in the bathroom. A woman wearing pajamas is standing next to him. But in the Saudi version of the catalog, the woman has been airbrushed out. Women have been removed from other images as well.

Whether the West should refrain from offending Muslim cultures has become a central issue after a YouTube video critical of the Prophet Muhammad was blamed, at least in part, for violent protests that included the murder of four Americans in Libya, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Nobody has suggested Saudis would riot if women appeared in the Ikea catalog. But Saudi women routinely are relegated to subservient role, their behavior and appearance are regulated by laws and customs, and few women appear in Saudi advertisements.

From a purely business perspective, Ikea can defend the decision to alter its catalogs. Why offend potential customers? Does the company have any obligation to advocate for a more progressive Saudi Arabia? And (having it both ways), the company’s apology placates Western critics.

What do you think? Was Ikea wrong to delete women from its Saudi catalog? Take our poll and/or leave a comment.